greenday

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Green Day was originally part of the punk rock scene at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, California. Their early releases for independent labelLookout! Records earned them a grassroots fanbase, some of whom felt alienated when the band signed to a major label. Nevertheless, their major label debut Dookie became a breakout success in 1994 and eventually sold over 10 million copies in the U.S. alone.[1] As a result, Green Day was widely credited, along with fellow California punk bands The Offspring and Rancid, with reviving mainstream interest in and popularizing punk rock in the United States.[2][3] Green Day's immediate follow-up albums didn't achieve the massive success of Dookie, but they were still successful. Their 2004 rock operaAmerican Idiot reignited the band's popularity with a younger generation, selling 5 million copies in the U.S.[4]